2020-10-13 Metadata meeting notes

Oct 13, 2020 3-4pm EST

Join Zoom Meeting

https://emory.zoom.us/j/93063879737?pwd=b0FYK1NiNkgvN1hZTFhmdk9SVDJvZz09

Participants

@Elizabeth Roke
@Valerie Addonizio
@Christine Di Bella
@Kevin Schlottmann
@Dallas Pillen
@Jared Campbell
@James Griffin (Unlicensed)

Minutes

@Jared Campbell
@James Griffin (Unlicensed)

Discussion Topics

Time	Item	Notes

Time	Item	Notes
5 min	Welcome
25 min	Review and update metadata standards list	https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AC/pages/905445396 Should this list live in the AS public-facing pages?
25 min	AS 3.0	@Christine Di Bella What can this team do in preparation for AS 3.0 or in documentation work once it is released? Some resources Agents test server: http://aspace-anw-429.lyrtech.org/staff/ Original metadata maps related to Agents release: EAC-CPF: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14LNkFb3KF89qTtU1FpnkYRCoPUu7E2NoHc9wKwfpT-o/edit?usp=sharing MARCXML authority records: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gHxjB0A4mrX82--SLIKA4pAck7hILNEKt3Idc9SOMDg/edit?usp=sharing For updates related to import/export/metadata maps in general: Look for the release milestone and issues with the labels https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A"import+%2F+export"+ https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/pulls?q=is%3Apr+label%3Aupdate_import%2Fexport_maps+ We will be putting out a smaller release prior to agents in November (tentatively numbered 2.8.1). There are a few relevant pull requests for metadata.
5 min	Next steps/homework

Action Items

Research the automatic mappings/data dictionaries for documentation from software project (including the generation of documentation from the code base)

Work with the results from the encoded metadata standards survey completed by Dallas in a separate sub-team

Minutes

This Sub-Team shall continue to meet monthly for now
Reviewing the Work Plan
- Looking at the metadata standards list
- Where we are committed to maintaining mappings
- That lives in last year’s workplan, should this be moved?
- This addresses the level of support for ArchivesSpace for Import/Export
- Tiers of Support
  - Standards in first tier: EAD2002, DACS
  - Second Tier: Dublin Core, EAC-CPF, OAI
- Difference between optimal and compliant support?
  - From last year, the first tier would be that we go as far as possible with near-optimal support
  - For MARC this is impossible, as it is complex and doesn’t map to the ASpace data model
  - Objective is to provide a mechanism for getting standards-compliant records out of the system
- What comes out of ArchivesSpace will be valid, but there might still need to be some transformation to account for additional data elements
Tickets and Enhancement Requests
- This sub-team guides this on behalf of the community
- Christine DiBella is aware of this
- The Sub-Group took this upon themselves
Regarding the list of existing mappings
- Does anything need to be moved?
- Does anything need to be added?
- EAC-CPF work: Kevin notes that this requires some additional updates regarding the encoding and support for agents
- Additional Mappings
  - Elizabeth is aware that Schema.org and other mappings were added to the code base, but this has not been documented for the public
Where do we find these mappings published on the WWW?
- There isn’t an explicit mapping for some of these
- In ArchivesSpace itself, it was implemented by Mark Custer
- Christine will be looking to identify this
- Elizabeth will add this to the list
Moving EAC-CPF up a tier?
- We’re not finished with EAD and MARC yet
Have we done a standard survey to see what users are getting in exports and imports? This might be an interesting step to take
- There was data from the EAS survey, and Dallas is aware of those who have access to the data
- Not many in the community were using EAC-CPF, but there were definitely interested parties
Placement of the documentation
- Should this be published elsewhere? Where might it need to go?
- It might be best to explore using another space, such as https://archivesspace.github.io/archivesspace/user/migration-tools-and-data-mapping
- Request for an update for phrasing
- Community members have the ability to issue a pull request against the GitHub repository
- There is another URL for this information: https://archivesspace.org/using-archivesspace/migration-tools-and-data-mapping
ArchivesSpace 3.0
- Timeline and where this sub-team can assist with supporting the release
- There is going to be a minor release before 3.0 addressing Agent exports
- On the GitHub repository, please monitor active Pull Requests
- 2.8.1 is the next scheduled release
- If there are mappings which are maintained (e. g. for EAD), these can be noted in the comments on the pull request
  - Is it helpful to have a workflow in which we monitor pull requests?
- For ArchivesSpace 3.0, the hope is to work towards more version-based approach for maintaining the maps
  - There also exists a test server: http://aspace-anw-429.lyrtech.org/staff/
- The mappings have never been fully versioned in git, and these have consistently been instead maintained in Spreadsheet
  - If they were in git, could we tie in changes in the mappings with the changes in the codebase which prompted these changes?
  - Christine: Uncertain, but this may be possible
  - Valerie: Git also provides us with the ability to tag changes and track changes at a more granular level
  - Kevin: Might it be possible to integrate this using the code-documentation as well?
    - This could greatly simplify the workload involved in manually maintaining the documentation
  - ArchivesSpace Data Dictionary
    - https://desolate-tundra-60608.herokuapp.com
    - It should be noted this is quite out of date
    - This should probably be generated directly from the code in the future
  - Action Item: Investigate autogenerating documentation first
    - This can be further extended from the basics at a later date
    - Perhaps half of a meeting could be spent looking at the code
  - Yard Gem
    - This is a Ruby Gem used to automatically generate documentation in HTML/CSS from code comments
    - https://archivesspace.github.io/archivesspace/doc is generated using this
    - It should remain important that we ensure that this is user-friendly for non-developers
Research undertaken by this group could help identify which barriers might be in place for onboarding non-developers into understanding the code base
Meeting adjourned at 15:58 EDT